A series of high-profile legal cases is driving the health and public safety conversation today, with courts and investigators focused on violence, impairment and trauma. In Perth, jurors are hearing rape allegations against a British rapper and YouTuber, with prosecutors portraying him as an “entitled semi-celebrity” after an Australian show. In the US, the federal terrorism trial over the 2022 stabbing of Salman Rushdie is nearing jury deliberations after defendant Hadi Matar declined to testify, while the author’s own evidence underscored the lasting physical impact of the attack. Elsewhere, the Minnesota Vikings have suspended assistant coach Gerald Alexander after his guilty plea in an impaired-driving case, and Australian police have been told alleged Perth “tobacco wars” figure Kazem Hamad has received a life sentence in Iraq. Meanwhile, search teams in Grenada continue looking for a missing Australian woman who vanished while swimming near Grand Anse.